Online Marketing – What is digital marketing or online marketing?

What advantages does digital marketing have over traditional marketing?

Online marketing has gained great importance since the 90s, even equaling traditional marketing (also called offline). This is because it offers certain advantages listed below:

• Greater capacity for measurement and optimization:  Online marketing offers a multitude of tools and metrics with which you can measure the success or failure of a campaign. This makes it much easier to optimize them, improving their weaknesses and consolidating their strengths.

• Segmentation:  The possibility of reaching a much more similar audience, avoiding the expense of impacting people who are not interested in your product or service and focusing campaigns on audiences with more possibilities of carrying out a conversion.

• Cost reduction:  Online marketing channels have a lower cost than traditional channels such as television or radio, especially if you take into account that you usually pay based on a certain result (clicks, impressions, etc.)

Techniques and types of Online Marketing

Although online marketing is the set of actions aimed at improving sales or making the brand known through the Internet, within it we can find various types or trends. Below you can see some of the most common:

Inbound Marketing

It is a series of techniques that seek to create an impact on a user in a non-intrusive way. While traditional marketing “assaults” users or viewers, Inbound Marketing tries to attract and retain them, directing them through the Funnel or Conversion Funnel.

Outbound Marketing

Unlike Inbound Marketing, these techniques are unidirectional and impact the user without them having specifically searched for that product or service through ads or banners, for example.

Brand Marketing (Branding)

It is marketing whose main objective is to make the brand, its values ​​and its image known, to generate a memory in potential consumers, without directing actions towards concrete and immediate results. The objective is for the brand to be stored in the users’ memory and associated with credibility and trust so that this represents a differentiating factor in a possible subsequent purchasing process.

Marketing b2b (Bussiness to Bussiness)

It is the marketing used by companies whose clients are other companies or self-employed professionals.

Marketing b2c (Bussiness to Customer)

It is the marketing used by companies whose clients are individuals and not other companies or professionals.

Performance Marketing

These are actions aimed at achieving specific results in a specific time (traffic, clicks, leads, sales, subscriptions, etc.) and with costs calculated to increase ROAS . 

Guerrilla marketing

It is a type of marketing focused on achieving maximum dissemination of actions at the lowest possible cost, through originality and surprise.

Relational marketing

It is marketing aimed not only at selling a product, but at establishing a relationship with the customer, knowing their needs and desires so that the business itself evolves according to them. Its objective is to retain customers and make them become recommenders of the product or service, and recurring customers, beyond simply trying to achieve a sale or subscription. It’s about creating synergies with customers. A CRM is usually used to manage this relationship . 

Conversational marketing

This marketing trend is based on the process of establishing direct, real-time communications with the aim of capturing and qualifying potential customers. This conversation is based on real-time, scalability, and customization features. Furthermore, thanks to the fact that the conversation is two-way, feedback can be obtained from the consumer to improve their experience as a customer.

Permission Marketing

The advertising relationship established with a person who leaves you their data must be based on their express permission to be able to establish said communications with them. What may seem like an obstacle becomes an advantage, since the fact that the user has to grant express permission turns them into a qualified lead, and that they are interested in what your brand has to tell them. Seth Godin was the first to coin the term permission marketing . 

Content Marketing

It is the strategy of generating relevant content for the user, generally downloadable and that provides value in exchange for providing some data and their consent to establish commercial communications with them. Additionally, this content can be adapted to different stages of the sales funnel to guide you through the purchasing process. 

Corporate Marketing

It is an internal marketing strategy within the company itself, which seeks to ensure that the worker can obtain benefits to build loyalty. It is based on transparency and creativity and seeks to ensure that workers become the company’s first ambassadors.

Solidarity marketing

They are solidarity actions with which the brand seeks to offer an image committed to society. A communication plan must be established so that the public becomes aware of these actions, in order to obtain profitability from them, even if it is as a branding concept.

Affiliate Marketing

It is a type of marketing through which the advertiser pays a fixed or variable commission to a third party for each acquisition that the advertiser achieves for them.

Blended marketing

It is the combination of online marketing and offline marketing strategies, so that they complement each other. Digital marketing techniques can be combined with offline channels such as radio, television, promotions in physical stores, etc.  

Remarketing

Also called retargeting , it involves showing ads to users who have carried out a specific action (for example, visiting a website or filling out a form), and impacting them with ads on other websites. This user will be identified to “follow” him with advertisements throughout his web browsing by installing a cookie in his browser.   

Proximity marketing

It is the digital marketing technique that uses location through the GPS system of mobile devices to reach people who are in a specific physical location with advertising.

Real time marketing

Current tools allow real-time communication to be established between the brand and users through social networks, chats and other types of support tools.

Direct marketing

Direct marketing is understood as marketing related to contacting users included in a database. This type of marketing includes techniques such as email marketing or SMS marketing.

Loyalty marketing

It is marketing that, instead of focusing on attracting new customers, directs its actions to retain those that have already been obtained or to increase their life time value. 

Niche or micro-niche marketing

It is marketing that focuses on small, very small groups with a common interest.

Marketing One-to-One

It is marketing that focuses on a specific individual, thanks to the segmentation possibilities offered by current tools.

Seasonal Marketing

They are marketing strategies focused on specific dates that are repeated annually such as Christmas, Black Friday, Valentine’s Day, etc.

Marketing de influencers

They are actions carried out by content generators with a large number of followers on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram or YouTube.

Online marketing channels

Search engine marketing (Search Engine Marketing)

It is the part of digital marketing focused on appearing in the first positions in the main internet search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.)

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization):  It is the optimization of websites and their content to obtain a better position in the search results of the different search engines, in order to receive more organic traffic.

• SEM (Search Engine Marketing):  These are advertisements that search engines include on their search pages through networks such as Google Adwords and that appear contextualized based on the search performed by the user.

Online advertising

Internet advertising can be found in various formats such as display networks (banners, intestitials), video ads, and even social networks have their own advertising networks (Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Twitter Ads, Linkedin Ads).

Email Marketing

It is a way of carrying out advertising actions by sending mass emails to a list of subscribers.

Social Media Marketing

The participation of companies in social networks is an effective way to create brand memory and generate interaction with their followers and potential clients. They can achieve it through two ways:

• Organic reach  It is the natural reach that the social network algorithm gives to user-generated content, showing it to a certain percentage of followers based on their interests and behavior.

• Social Ads:  These are the advertising spaces that social networks offer advertisers to increase their reach and reach the target audience through demographic segmentation, behavior or interests.

Blogging

A corporate blog in which to create content is one of the most common practices of companies with the aim of positioning their website through SEO and obtaining potential clients.

Online marketing tools

 

Content tools

They are the various tools that allow you to create content to attract visitors to the website through its promotion.

 

Metrics and analysis tools

They are those tools that allow you to measure and analyze data to assess whether the marketing strategy is being successful. Some of the best known are Google Analytics, Sistrix or SemRush.

 

Management tools

CRM or customer relationship management stands out , serving to facilitate customer relationship management.  

 

Advertising tools

They are those that allow us to distribute our content in exchange for payment. These are networks such as Google Ads, Social Ads, etc.   

 

Loyalty tools

They are those that are used to maintain communications with customers and try to convert them into recurring customers. For example, email marketing and SMS Marketing.   

Automation tools (Marketing Automation)

This is software that allows you to automate certain tasks related to marketing actions, such as sending emails, publications on social networks, lead nurturing workflows or campaign reports and monitoring.  

 

Roles of online marketing

The innovation that digital marketing has brought about in recent years has caused figures that did not exist a few decades ago to join the labor market or the reconversion of some others. Digital marketing professionals are in charge of defining and meeting the KPIs defined for each channel and medium, whether owned or paid. The usual thing is to tend towards specialization, being able to select some of the most important in the following:

SEO Manager

It is in charge of optimizing and improving positioning in search engines to appear in the highest possible positions in the key keywords for the company.  

Social Media Manager

It is in charge of making an editorial calendar for the different social networks and establishing reach objectives, followers, interactions, etc.-

Content marketing specialist

Defines the content generated to provide value to the user, from the blog to ebooks, webinars, etc.

Automation coordinator

You must manage the software used to automate certain marketing actions, as well as be attentive to reports, possible failures, etc.

PPC Manager

He is in charge of coordinating paid online advertising campaigns and measuring the return they have had.  

Importance of online marketing

In recent years, digital marketing and internet presence have become very important in small and medium-sized businesses. In addition to traditional advertising, the increase in local searches and the importance of online reputation has meant that this form of marketing has acquired as much or more importance than offline marketing.

The 4 F’s of online marketing

If in traditional marketing we talked about the 4 “p’s” of marketing (product, price, promotion and place), in digital marketing the 4 “f’s” are used, coined by the author Paul Fleming, which are the following:

• Flow : It is the state a user enters when browsing a website or application that offers an interactive experience and at the same time provides added value.

• Functionality : For the acquisition to take place, the website or application must be functional enough not to break the flow state in which the user has entered.

• Feedback : A bidirectional relationship is built and the company can also extract information from the user’s behavior.

• Loyalty : Online support allows the creation of user communications that provide content and experience to the company itself, beyond remaining a simple buyer.

Online marketing plan

The online marketing plan is a document that studies the situation of the company on the Internet and establishes a target audience and an action plan aimed at obtaining a return on advertising investment, whether oriented towards branding or performance .     

Online marketing strategy

An online marketing strategy must consist of the following steps:

Target audience study ( Buyer Persona )

The specific audience we want to address must be defined to, based on that, modify the entire communication strategy.

Competitor study

It is key to know the market situation in which we operate and to know what our competitors’ strategies are in order to differentiate ourselves from them.

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis (Weaknesses, Threats, Strengths and Opportunities), also called SWOT in English, allows us to place our company at a specific point within the market sector, and is very useful when defining the strategy and objectives.

SMART goals

The objectives of the marketing plan should be:

• Specific : They must be specific.

• Measurable : Results must be measurable.

• Achievable : They must be achievable.

• Realistic : They must be within the possibilities of time, budget, etc.

• Temporary : They must be established within a specific time.

media plan

You must define which channels and tools to use (SEO, SEM, Social Media, etc.), the importance they will have, and their impact on each phase of the sales funnel.

Calendar and budget definition

A specific budget is established for each channel, and is distributed over a period of time. For example, if a business is affected by seasonality, the budget will be distributed unevenly throughout the year.

Results measurement and optimization

Results must be measured to be improved and optimized. The advantage of online marketing is that it allows you to know results in real time and a great capacity to adapt the strategy to reality if it differs from what was planned.